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Veterans Memorial Parkway expansion done and open to traffic

Traffic speeds along Veterans Memorial Parkway, Monday, just north of Trafalgar St., where residents backing onto the road, which sees about 25,000 vehicles daily, are unhappy with the city’s noise-level testing and proposed solution. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)

The newly expanded southern interchange of Veterans Memorial Parkway is now open to traffic.

After a year of construction, the $22-million project is finally complete with the removal of the pylons blocking the eastbound lanes to Hwy 401.

It's the first major expansion since the roadway, then known as Highway 100, was completed in 1978. The highway has been expanded to Wilton Grove Road, about a kilometre to the south, with a full interchange at Hwy. 401.

The parkway extension is another step in a long-term plan to improve London's 401 access, including the completed rebuild of the Wellington Road interchange in 2008, the construction of the new Wonderland Road access in 2015 and a rebuild of the Highbury and Colonel Talbot Road interchanges.